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Race

March 11, 2013

As you may knowfrom the previous post, some ne'er-do-well hit my car while it was parked and kept going. Today I go to get quotes on the fix. I try a recommended shop (black-owned) and was told that the repairs would easily be over $1,000 dollars. I should have known she was going to go high when she asked if my insurance was going to cover it. Like, what does that have to do with you quoting me a price lady. I tell her that I just need it to be drivable not look good. She says she will not touch it unless she can do the full repairs.

On to the next one!

My next stop happens to be a non-black owned business. An older white guy who looks like he has been doing this for some time takes a look at it. He says, like the previous lady, that if he replaces the whole panel it will be over $1,000. I state again that I dont care about cosmetics I just need the car to run with the wheel not scrubbing the metal. He says well, ok, and quotes me $273.00. I am not sure if that is a good price or not. I just know that it is leaps and bounds from over $1,000.

I have heard the mantra support minority-owned businesses for a long-time. I know some entrepreneurs who are great business people. My questions is should race ever matter when selecting a business? I understand about city-contracts and racism, nepotism, and the like. I mean in everyday consumer economics, does it matter? Is it racist (as black people) to choose a business based on the color of the owner? Does service and other factors count?

This is just a question that has been bouncing around in my mind since this incident. I would like some input please.

May 02, 2012

I was going to go see Think Like A Man when I decided to do something a little more intellectually stimulating. I perused my email for event alerts and check out Art and Seek and find that SMU is performing a James Baldwin play. I recalled reading the play in college so I thought this may be interesting and it is only $13.00.

I was simply blown away. The caliber of production and acting was far above what I have seen in college productions. There were a couple of weak cast members but overall quite professional.

Above the production quality the story drama was shockingly relevant today. Let me backtrack a bit. Blues for Mr Charlie is about the killing of a young, cocky black man who comes back to the south after being "ruined" up North by a white man. The dialogue and character development are so layered. Baldwin gets into the psyche of his characters and the story develops into something more complex than the black versus the white side of things. A picture of Trayvon Martin hauntingly swung from a tree wrapped in newspaper headlines.

I cannot tell you how Think Like A Man ends. I have heard a thing or too about Michael Ealy and a seen with Taraji Henson and chocolate. lol I can tell you that I made the right entertainment choice and left the theater feeling a little more enlightened than when I came.